Opinion: Stop hoping for a federal abortion ban; change hearts and minds instead

June 24 marked the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which functionally abolished federal-level abortion protections protected by Roe v. Wade for nearly half a century.

The occasion was met with the expected media fanfare, with hundreds of articles lamenting the negative effects of reduced access in 14 banned states and 27 partially banned.

Only a deep, spiritual revival can convince millions to change their minds on the importance of life in the womb. This hasn’t happened through legislation, so it must happen through the heart.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the alleged corruption of the Supreme Court and called for a Democratic majority in Congress to restore federal abortion protections. Human Rights Watch declared Dobbs an “egregious regression of women’s rights” and cited cases of rapes and medically dangerous infants being carried to term at women’s expense.

And with the court’s recent Chevron deference and limited immunity decisions, the two-year attempt to delegitimize the judicial branch continues at pace, with AOC calling for court justices to be impeached.

Mostly legal

Abortion continues to be legal in the majority of U.S. states, and vast apparatuses have emerged to help provide women with travel out of state through corporate-sponsored or charity-sponsored travel efforts, which has been called “abortion trafficking.”

The issue arose in June’s infamous debate between President Trump and President Biden. Naturally, Trump is ultimately responsible for Roe v. Wade’s overturning and was asked to defend the decision. He instead affirmed that states should have the right to decide for themselves, signaling that a second Trump administration largely wouldn’t touch the issue.

“Fifty-one years ago, we had Roe v. Wade, and everybody wanted to get it back to the states, without exception. Democrats and Republicans. Liberals and conservatives. Religious leaders. Everybody wanted it back. And what I did was put three great Supreme Court justices on the court, and they happened to vote in favor of killing Roe v. Wade and moving it back to the states. ... The states control it. The vote of the people.”

Trump has spent the past year distancing himself from the pro-life movement, which has been widely received as an insult by his conservative supporters and pro-life activists. Back in April, he directly blamed pro-life voters for the failures in the 2022 midterms, leading many of his religious supporters to feel insulted and betrayed, particularly concerning his backing away from one of his most historic accomplishments.

As Trump posted on August 23 on Truth Social, “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”

Changing the subject

The party at large reflects this distancing. VP candidate JD Vance (R-Ohio) has repeatedly appeared in adversarial interviews with the press, defending Trump’s lukewarm pro-life stance. He told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that abortion pills should be legal and that policy should be determined at the state level. He affirmed this position again on Sunday, telling "Meet the Press" that Trump would veto any federal-level anti-abortion legislation.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has also appeared on CNN’s "State of the Union" affirming Trump’s position that “voters and individual states get to decide on restrictions” while still claiming Trump is the only pro-life candidate in the race. Elon Musk subsequently accused Vice President Kamala Harris of lying when she claimed that Trump would institute a total abortion ban, which itself was immediately debunked by a community note. The Republican National Convention even went so far as to walk back some of its abortion stances in the party’s official platform.

Conservatives on X have declared this shift a betrayal, with thousands of pro-life activists threatening to abstain from voting unless Trump reaffirms his commitment. His stance can’t help but feel like cowardice in the face of public pressure. And it is. The Republican Party doesn’t feel like it can make progress on the issue, and so it’s giving up.

A losing issue?

Unfortunately, Trump, Vance, and Rubio’s acquiescence on the issue is likely the best that the pro-life movement can expect at the moment. The only party in this election with an affirmative anti-abortion stance is the progressive third-party American Solidarity Party. Republicans have picked up that it is a losing issue and are doing everything in their power to avoid it.

However, in some ways, the modern Republican Party has reached the end of its capabilities at the present moment. Despite five decades of activism, the pro-life side is mostly losing in the public square. Americans overwhelmingly support moderated forms of abortion rights. Recent Pew Research data shows that only 36% of Americans support a partial or total abortion ban. Social scientist Ryan Burge also notes that Republican support for a total abortion ban has decreased from 30% to 25% in the past three years.

Thankfully, the grassroots pro-life movement remains strong. Many within the movement feared that its momentum would entirely dry up after Dobbs, that money and support for women’s care centers and crisis pregnancy centers would dry up — proving leftists right that we only care about babies in the womb and not outside. This did not occur.

A beacon of 'Hope'

My friend Kailey Cornett is the CEO of the pro-life Hope Center for Women in Nashville, Tennessee. Her clinic was nearly vandalized with a Molotov cocktail in July 2022, shortly after Dobbs. As she writes, "In the years since the Dobbs decision, here in Tennessee, we have seen a variety of responses. There are some champions who know us, love us, and understand the need is still great for our services. They have continued to support Hope Clinic, as have new donors who have learned about us in the last two years.”

Despite attempts to slander these clinics as inaccurate, unregulated, anti-abortion extremists, they’ve continued to maintain a strong momentum across the country, with many finding greater volunteer support, private donations, and federal funding in the past two years. This is despite pressure from left-wing activists, including subsequent vandalism attempts such as the one that happened near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month.

Encouraging as this is, it still speaks to a fundamental disconnect on the issue of abortion. The pro-life movement may be fully correct in its view and desire for a total ban on the practice, but it will not happen any time soon. Any federal attempt to impose laws against it will be met with the full force and deep pockets of the pro-choice lobby. It would almost certainly be immediately overturned. In a worst-case scenario, a Democratic supermajority could codify abortion protections in federal law and make them much stickier to undo. The cycle would start again.

Fifty-one years after Roe v. Wade, the hopes and prayers of the pro-life movement were fulfilled in Dobbs, and it has done a serviceable job moving forward despite a lack of clear leadership and direction. However, it has reached the edge of its capabilities in its current form.

A redirected effort is necessary for the future of this movement, and it cannot be won in Congress or the courts but can in the hearts and minds of Americans. We cannot simply enforce a full abortion ban on the American people if they do not want one.

Only a deep, spiritual revival can convince millions to change their minds on the importance of life in the womb. This hasn’t happened through legislation, so it must happen through the heart. This and many of America’s other problems will only go away when the hearts of the multitudes seek faith and find a greater sense of meaning and purpose through a religious ideology that teaches the importance of life.

Until such a time, there is little that can be permanently accomplished. Hopefully, the perseverance that carried the pro-life movement through half a century of doubt and uncertainty will be used to assist in that mission. If the Republican Party won’t stand for pro-life values, it falls into the movement’s hands to do the hard work.